General Simcoe's paper town called London.[74] Along the banks of the Lake and river St. Clair, the country, generally, is fertile, and pleasingly diversified. The sugar maple tree abounds here, and here too are elegant forests of pine timber well calculated for the common purposes of building, and also for spars. I may add, that on the banks of the Thames are villages of the Delawares and Chippewas.[75] The principal townships of the Six Nations are situated near the greatest source of this river.
Before I leave Lake St. Clair, I must say a word respecting the old veteran of this name.[76] It is indeed too late to do him justice:—he no longer wants {127} the meat which perisheth. But we may spread laurels upon his tomb; and soothe the spirit, which, perhaps, even now hovers over its country, and seeks the fame which his merit achieved. The mass of mankind judge of plans, and of their execution, not by their abstract wisdom, or energy, but by their results. Many a man, however, gains a victory by a blunder, and experiences defeat through the instrumentality of his wisdom. Accident often settles the question; and we may presume, that sometimes it is emphatically the will of Heaven, that the strongest and wisest party should be overcome.
General St. Clair devoted his whole life to the art of
